travel channel supastah!

saturday was certainly a whirlwind of craziness. i began getting ready at 6am because we were scheduled to meet the host of the show at 10. i thought ahonui would sleep until around 8-ish, but i guess he heard me get out of bed and crawled after me. after an hour & a half of getting my hair straightened (thanks tab!), i then had to get ahonui ready and fed. i prayed that he would be a good boy for the travel channel cameras and guests at the pretend first birthday luau.

so at 9am we met at uncle vonn's house down the road from my apartment to go to turtle bay resort's helipad. there we were to finally meet the show's host, andrew zimmern, and his bizarre foods crew arriving via helicopter.

isn't there a stereotype that tv show stars are supposed to be egotistical and rude to us less famous peasants? well, this guy absolutely defies this stereotype. he was just the nicest, most down to earth guy you'll ever meet.

the pretend luau began at around 12 noon-ish...actually, people began arriving at that time since that's when i told our guests to come. however, when you're shooting a tv show, this means doing what you just did over and over about three or four times - or until the producer is happy with the shot. so while andrew and my uncle vonn were going over how to pound taro into poi and make lomi 'o'i'o (raw fish pulled from the bones and then mixed with the meat of a kukui nut and hawaiian salt), all the starving guests waited patiently.

ahonui took a brief nap around 1pm. i was so worried that he would be sleeping or grumpy when the camera crew needed to shoot him, but it all worked out perfectly. he slept when they didn't need him, and he was a happy, cooperative boy pretty much all day long...i was so proud.

brandon, fran, and harrison were our wonderful entertainment that day. they couldn't even begin performing until the cameras were done shooting the cooking (or lack thereof) segment. we are also very lucky to have the best hula dancers right in our family! brieanne, kaui, and angela were so awesome to agree to do a beautiful hula for our guests. it was perfect...who needs the pcc promo team?

here are some of the 'ono kine grindz that were served:

pounded taro (poi)

squid lu'au

raw crab

'ahi poke

kulolo

y'all know what this is...yummy pineapple (this one's for u, kareena)

lomi 'o'i'o

liliha bakery chantilly cake...it went as soon as it was cut!

after singing happy birthday to our 14 month old, marcus, tane, and some guys i don't know represented the whanau by performing a traditional maori haka. it never gets old for me...thanks bros.

also, thanks to my mom for all her hard work with the planning and decorations. don't you love the monster construction trucks with flowers? so masculine.

all this for our little one...i hope one day when he's quite grown up, he'll look back at our blu-ray dvd copy of the show and be like, "yeeah, that was me!"

my feet haven't been this dirty since i was seven. but i felt so hawaiian - and exhausted!!